


The Bird Collector

by sealandreich



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-20 05:11:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20669867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sealandreich/pseuds/sealandreich
Summary: He saw someone else repeating the mistake he’d made years ago. He needed to warn her. But he was never was good with people. And Charlotte couldn't tell what the man with the messed up ear was thinking.





	The Bird Collector

**Author's Note:**

> No season 2 spoilers, don’t worry.

Charlotte wasn’t paying much attention to her surroundings. Did she need to? She was part of the forest itself by now. There hadn’t been any trouble, except for the time Officer Tiedemann accused her of being a Satanist. She was a loner, he said, that spent an unusual amount of time in the forest. She resented being labelled a loner, even if it was true, and being accused of Satanism. She had much better things to do than do whatever Satanists supposedly do, like draw birds. Oh, there were the dead birds. Those might also have caused Officer Tiedemann to believe she was a Satanist.

A wave of dread slowly hit her. Charlotte ignored it and kept drawing. Grandpa Tannhaus told her she couldn’t keep the birds in the freezer anymore, so she needed to draw the birds soon before they started rotting. The wave of dread kept building up. Was she being watched? And there had been the disappearance of the infamous Ulrich’s kid brother. Was he last seen in the forest?

Charlotte slowly got up off the ground and looked around. Was someone there, right there, by that tree? She slowly moved to get a better look. 

There he was, trying to hide behind the tree. A man with something wrong with his ear. Their eyes met. Charlotte started backing away. The man took a step forward for each step she took backward.

Charlotte was the first to speak. “Don’t come any closer.”

The man advanced slowly. “I’m not here to hurt you,” he said. “I need to warn you!” 

“I said don’t come any closer.” She turned and ran.

The man grabbed her shoulders. Charlotte turned and punched him in the ear, that ear that was messed up. That only distressed him more. He charged into her until they hit a tree, pinning her against it.

“Look at my ear. Look at it!” roared the man, with a desperate voice. “You see what happened to it? I was just a child then, an innocent child. I met the man with the stone that day.” His voice started shaking.

The man seemed off. He was frantic. There was no telling what he might do next. Charlotte’s hands went to his neck to choke him. She needed to do something. Charlotte never sought out fights, but she’d learned enough to be able to defend herself from bullies and keep them from bothering her.

“You need to listen! I have to warn you!”

The choke wasn’t working. She didn’t have enough muscle to use brute force alone. Her attacker leaned his head back enough to escape her weak grip, while still holding her against the tree.

“The man with the stone asked what I had with me,” the man continued. “He saw the birds I collected. Don’t let anyone see those birds!” The man was shouting now. “Don’t let anyone see! He saw those birds, those dead birds, and that I collected them! And something changed.” He pointed to the messed up side of his face. “He took his stone, and this is what he did!”

“Let me go!” Charlotte growled. The man ignored her. He wasn’t even looking at her. Just staring off into space. But he still didn’t let go. Charlotte started kicking him and kicking him.

“He hit me with the stone over and over again! Thud, thud, thud, thud—” The man was crying now.

“I said let me go!” 

“Don’t let anyone see the birds! You must be more careful!”

They didn’t hear the footsteps of another person running toward them. 

“Get the hell out of here, you fucking perv!” It was Katharina.

The man let go of Charlotte.

“Leave before I fucking castrate you!” Katharina roared.

The man turned and ran. Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief. _The first time I've ever been glad to see a bully, _Charlotte thought to herself. “Thanks Katharina,” she said awkwardly.

Katharina turned and looked at Charlotte, and then at the dead birds that Charlotte had been drawing. “Oh. Dead things. Wow, you’re a fucking weirdo,” she said, sounding unnerved. “Well, women gotta look out for each other, you know,” said Katharina with an uneasy laugh, slowly backing away and not taking her eyes off the dead birds. 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I went back and edited the end a bit.


End file.
